Exporting to QuickBooks

This document is intended to supplement the information on exporting your accounts that you can find in the RentalDesk NX manual or help file. If after following all of the instructions you find that QUICKBOOKS is still unable to import a file that is exported from RentalDesk NX, then this will most likely be because:

the version of QUICKBOOKS that you own is expecting a slightly different file format, possibly because it is a recent release or update, or because it is designed for a specific country.

QUICKBOOKS itself needs you to create accounts or rename them in order to be compatible with the setup in RentalDesk.

In such cases we recommend that you manually produce a compatible import file using Windows Notepad, following the documentation or samples supplied by Intuit, the software house that produce QUICKBOOKS . The import file format is very simple and you merely have to save it with a file extension of .IIF for QuickBooks to be able to recognise it. Once you are able to get this sample file to import successfully you can sent it to support@navigator.co.uk with full details of the version of QuickBooks that you are running. Once we receive this we will be able to adjust RentalDesk so that it is capable of generating a file with exactly the same format. This service is a fulfils our pledge that RentalDesk NX supports exporting invoice and purchase order data to all versions of QuickBooks that use an 'import from text file' technology.

Section A - INVOICING

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Account Refs

QUICKBOOKS will treat the company names that you have in RentalDesk as the company identifier when it imports your data; if the company name is not found (maybe only because of a slight spelling difference) QUICKBOOKS will create a new Customer:Job List. You should make sure all your customers in RentalDesk match those in QUICKBOOKS

Taxation

Taxation in QUICKBOOKS is handled according to the prevailing tax laws in the country, but it basically falls into 2 main groups: simple taxation, where a single tax code and rate is used; group taxation, where multiple tax codes and rates are grouped under a single tax code. QUICKBOOKS UK is an example of the former; QUICKBOOKS US or QUICKBOOKS AUZ are examples for the latter.

The QUICKBOOKS terminology for group taxation is "Sales Tax Groups", and these are equivalent to composite tax codes in RentalDesk, i.e. Tax Codes which are made up of two or three 'Sales Tax Items' ). At the time of writing this article QUICKBOOKS doesn’t entirely support the importing of Sales Tax Groups; however, this is not a major problem because QUICKBOOKS will import the 'Sales Tax Items' as lines on an invoice, so the actual breakdown of tax amounts will still be allocated to the correct tax accounts. The only curiosity is that QUICKBOOKS will NOT calculate the TOTAL tax for the invoice after the data is imported; instead we have to supply this amount in the imported data and it has to be allocated to a Sales Tax Group which will appear at the bottom of your QUICKBOOKS Invoice form. Like all tax amounts this sum needs to be allocated to a 'Tax Account', but of course you would not want it allocated to your "Sales Tax Payable" account because the "Sale Tax Item" amounts will have already been allocated there and the amount would be imported twice. INTUIT,,have advised us that the best option here is to create a 'dummy' Tax Account and have the export report assign the 'Sales Group Tax' amount to this. So you will need to set this up in QUICKBOOKS before you begin importing data. NOTE: QUICKBOOKS will not import the tax rate for the Sales Tax Group, so although the tax amount for invoice will be displayed, the tax rate will be shown as (0.0%). This is not a problem, because the Sale Tax Item rates will be imported correctly.

If you only use 'Sales Tax Items' in QUICKBOOKS then, although the tax details will be imported as a line item, QUICKBOOKS in fact does not display this and the correct tax details will appear at the bottom of the form

Tax Codes also have 'descriptions' in QUICKBOOKS , and for the Sales Tax Items that import as part of Sales Tax Groups the tax descriptions will appear in the body of the invoice. You can enter Tax Descriptions on the Taxation tab of the Accounts Export utility.

NOTE: although you can assign a different tax code to each line of an Invoice in RentalDesk, you can only assign one global tax code to an invoice in QUICKBOOKS , be it a Group Tax or an Item Tax, so the Accounts Export Utility will use the tax code on the first line of an invoice in RentalDesk as the global tax code for a QUICKBOOKS invoice.

Accounts and Nominal Codes

Each line of imported data, income and taxation, must be assigned to an account. There are effectively FOUR classes of accounts that you will need to assign to:

Main Account. The invoice as a whole will probably be allocated to Accounts Receivable (see General Set-up below)

Sub-Accounts. The lines on an invoice must be allocated to Sub-Accounts in QUICKBOOKS . These should map to the Nominal Codes which you have assigned to the invoice lines in RentalDesk. So you will need to set up your Nominal Codes in RentalDesk to reflect your Sub-Accounts in QUICKBOOKS . Don’t worry that RentalDesk uses the numeric Nominal Code on its invoices if your Sub-Accounts are alpha-numeric; just make the Nominal Descriptions reflect your Sub-Accounts in RentalDesk and there is an option in the General Set up for the export to use this value rather than the Nominal Code itself " (see General Set-up below)

Tax Accounts. You probably only have one, "Sales Tax Payable". However, you still need to specify this in the General Set-up below.

"Dummy" Tax Account. You need to specify this in the General Set-up (see below). You will enter this for each Composite Tax Code in RentalDesk.

SETUP DETAILS

Settings

Explanation

General Options

Main Account

User-defined

Accounts Receivable is probably correct for QUICKBOOKS

Output File Name

User-Defined

You can encode the date and time into the filename if you do not want to overwrite previous export files.

FileExt

IIF

This is read only and set for you

Output File Location

User-defined

Use this to specify where the data will be exported to. Obviously your account package needs access to this location

Use RentalDesk Tax Names

False (un-ticked)

It is unlikely that the Tax Codes you can define in RentalDesk match those in QUICKBOOKS . You can specify the correct tax code names in the Taxation set up.

Require Account Ref.

False (un-ticked)

Only need for import routines which "require" Acc. Refs. to be to be imported.

Reject Default Tax Code

False

A job picks up the tax code assigned to a Customer in the Address Book. If you have not see this explicitly the default (first) tax code is used, which may be incorrect. If you want the export log to warn you that items with the first tax code are being exported then check this option

Reject Default Nominal Code

False

As above but for nominal codes

Use Nominal Description instead of Nominal Code

True (ticked)

Since Nominal Codes are numeric in RentalDesk you probably want to use the alpha-numeric descriptions you have given them instead

U.S. Taxation Options (a composite taxation example)

Tax Code Name

Refer to your QUICKBOOKS taxcodes

RentalDesk Main Tax Codes can only be up to 5 characters long, so you will need to enter the your QUICKBOOKS tax code name here. Don’t forget a "Dummy" account forComposite (Group) Tax Codes

G/L Account

Not applicable

Leave blank

Tax Authority

Refer to your QUICKBOOKS taxcodes

Enter the Tax Authority who collects this tax EXACTLY as it is spelt in QUICKBOOKS

Sales Tax Account

This defaults toSales Tax Payable in all the versions of QB that we have tested and cannot be changed

You need to specify this for EVERY tax code in RentalDesk

Tax Description

Refer to your QUICKBOOKS taxcodes

Enter the Tax Description

EXACTLY as it is spelt in QUICKBOOKS

Tax Type

Not applicable

Leave blank

Section B - PURCHASE ORDERS

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Unlike Invoice imports, QUICKBOOKS will assign companies (suppliers) it does not recognize to the "Other Names" list. If you want to avoid this then it might be a good idea to assign Account. Refs. to your suppliers in RentalDesk; then if you set the Force Short Account Ref . option on the Set-up tab, you will only be able to export Orders raised by suppliers that you know you have in QUICKBOOKS .

SETUP DETAILS

Settings

Explanation

General Options

Main Account

User-defined

Accounts Receivable is probably correct for QUICKBOOKS

Output File Name

User-Defined

You can encode the date and time into the filename if you do not want to overwrite previous export files.

FileExt

IIF

This is read only and set for you

Output File Location

User-defined

Use this to specify where the data will be exported to. Obviously your account package needs access to this location

Use RentalDesk Tax Names

False (un-ticked)

It is unlikely that the Tax Codes you can define in RentalDesk match those in QUICKBOOKS . You can specify the correct tax code names in the Taxation set up.

Require Account Ref.

False (un-ticked)

Only need for import routines which "require" Acc. Refs. to be to be imported.

Reject Default Tax Code

False

A job picks up the tax code assigned to a Customer in the Address Book. If you have not see this explicitly the default (first) tax code is used, which may be incorrect. If you want the export log to warn you that items with the first tax code are being exported then check this option

Reject Default Nominal Code

False

As above but for nominal codes

Use Nominal Description instead of Nominal Code

True (ticked)

Since Nominal Codes are numeric in RentalDesk you probably want to use the alpha-numeric descriptions you have given them instead